Help:Ability pages
Introduction Ability articles are set up to provide information to players about skills that they don't yet possess, and act as a reference point for understanding class mechanics in greater detail. While other sites may list the names of trainable abilities or comment on general types of skills, we hope to provide an authoratitive source for exact functionality. With this in mind, actual skill behaviour is the most important data to collect. How abilities are listed on Telonica The standard practice for setting up ability pages on Telonica is as follows: # For abilities that do not have levels, create a single overview page for that ability that includes a tooltip box, description, and any other notes that may be appropriate. #* Try to name the page exactly as the name of the skill, such as "Heirophant's Boon" or "Spatial Leap". If the name of the skill is the same as an item or other article, add the word (ability) in brackets, such as "Roseberries (Ability)". # For abilities with levels: ## Create an overview page as above that includes a generic tooltip box, description, notes, and table of ranks. Use the name of the skill without rank number - named for example "Wild Growth". ## Also create an individual rank page for each level of the skill that only includes a specific tooltip box for that rank, along with a link to the overview page, named for example "Wild Growth I". This allows other pages to produce a mouseover tooltip for that rank of the skill. Example: Page styles One of the easiest ways to set up a new ability article is to copy from an existing one and alter the information to suit the new skill. If you prefer to start with a blank page, just ensure the following elements are added. Tooltip Box Generally, both overview pages and rank pages should begin with the Template:AbilityTooltip , such as: |Type=Arcane Evocation |Target=Offensive Target |Range=25 |Cast=2.0 |Level=1 |Description=Calls down a bolt of lightning that deals 52 to 58 arcane damage to an opponent. |WeaknessCaused=Staggered |WeaknessExploited=Vulnerable }} |Type=Arcane Evocation |Target=Offensive Target |Range=25 |Cast=2.0 |Level=1 |Description=Calls down a bolt of lightning that deals 52 to 58 arcane damage to an opponent. |WeaknessCaused=Staggered |WeaknessExploited=Vulnerable }} or for an overview page that omits details: |Type=Arcane Evocation |Target=Offensive Target |Range=25 |Cast=2.0 |Level=1 |Description=Calls down a bolt of lightning that deals XX to YY arcane damage to an opponent. |WeaknessCaused=Staggered |WeaknessExploited=Vulnerable }} |Type=Arcane Evocation |Target=Offensive Target |Range=25 |Cast=2.0 |Level=1 |Description=Calls down a bolt of lightning that deals XX to YY arcane damage to an opponent. |WeaknessCaused=Staggered |WeaknessExploited=Vulnerable }} To find which icon matches the in-game skill tooltip, check the Macro Icons page. Description The first paragraph following the AbilityTooltip of both overview and rank pages should be a short description of what the ability does. This should link to the relevant class page(s) as per who can learn the ability, as well as use simple language to describe what type of ability it is. Following the Lightning Strike example, the description might be as short as: Lightning Strike is a Druidic direct damage spell, that at ranks three and above has a chance to cause a second bolt of lightning to strike the target. Rank table On the overview page, I consider it helpful to have a summary of how the ability improves as it increases in rank and power. Although ideally we will eventually have a specific template or perhaps code that can pick this up from the rank pages, for now I use a wikitable of class "darktable" set out in the following way: producing: (Note that in order to colour the Energy/Endurance costs, the Energy and Endurance templates should make the process easy. Similarly for other coloured keywords, like Health, Jin, Physical damage and so on.) Try to keep the rank table as brief as possible, summarizing only the changes in effect rather than the full skill description each time. Categories Try to add categories to any ability page, both the overview and specific rank pages, so that it is easy to find all skills of a certain type across classes. Some key categories include: * Class (eg. Category:Druid Abilities, Category:Blood Mage Abilities) * Type (eg. Category:Wonders, Category:Healing Abilities, Category:Snares) * School (eg. Category:Evocation Spells)